The Apprentice
by HikaruKin4869
Summary: A new guy joins Naruto's class in his last year. He takes Naruto under his wing and decides to train him. Just who is the new guy? How will this change Naruto's life? Read and find out.
1. I Meet the Eagle

**This is a story that popped into my head when I started writing a while back but I never wrote it so this is the first chapter of my new story. I don't think it'll be very good, but please read and enjoy. Also, it'll be Hinata x Naruto x Ino. Also, if you've read either 'Call of the Eagle' or 'The Envoys' then you will already know who the OC(s) is/are. This is a spin-off of my "The Envoys" story. **

I Meet the Eagle

It was a new day in Konohagakure no Sato. In a small apartment, you could see a boy around the age of 12 waking up. His sun-kissed blond hair as spiky and messy as it always was. This boy, was Uzumaki Naruto, Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. As he woke up, he looked out his window to look at the sun as it rose over the horizon. For a second though, he swore he saw a shadow in the window, and then it just disappeared.

'Eh, it was probably just a shinobi passing by,' Naruto thought. Then, he started his morning routine; using the bathroom, freshening up, and then eating a cup of ramen. As he finished, he threw away his cup and made his way out the door, a noticeable bounce in his step. After all, this was the first day of his last year at the Academy, and then he would become a shinobi… hopefully anyway.

As he walked to the Academy he felt as if he was being followed. After so many years running from beatings when he was a child, he had developed a sort of sixth sense. So when he felt this he would turn and look around, but every time he looked, there would be no one there. When he got to the Academy, he sat down in the very back. No one was there yet so he decided to sleep for a bit. So he put his feet on the desk in front of him and leaned back, falling asleep.

By the time he woke up, nearly everyone had arrived; mainly the clan heirs. Nara Shikamaru in all his laziness was sleeping. Akimichi Choji was eating chips by the handful next to the King of Laziness like he always did. Hyuuga Hinata was twiddling her fingers and every now and then would glance back at Naruto. Aburame Shino was sitting next to the Hyuuga reading a book on insects. Inuzuka Kiba was playing with his puppy, Akamaru. Uchiha Sasuke was brooding like he always was. Aside from them, there were some other people in the class, but Naruto paid no attention towards them.

Then the building started to shake a bit. This indicated what everyone in the Academy dreaded every morning. Everyone, even the sleeping Nara, plugged their ears with their fingers in sync with each other. Then the door opened quickly and there were two people stuck in it. Yamanaka Ino, heiress to the Yamanaka clan. Then there was Haruno Sakura, Naruto's first crush and resident banshee. Naruto may have liked her for most of his years at the Academy, but it all changed last year when she had thrown a kunai at him when they were doing some target practice. She had gotten in trouble for a second but then said it was an accident, getting off scot-free, even though he was on the complete opposite side of the field… behind her… when he was trying to talk to 'her' Sasuke… and it was aimed at his groin.

Once the two rivals/friends got in, they decided to scream their (and everyone else's) heads off about who would sit next to the brooding Uchiha, even though he had seats on either side of him that were open. Naruto, along with much of the population of the whole Academy, were wondering if these two were really the smartest kunoichi of their year. Just before everyone in the room was going to die from their screaming, Iruka in all his glory decided to save them by walking in and telling them to quiet down.

"So, as you know, this might be your final year at the Academy. With this new year, we will learn new things, experience new things, and meet new people, and so, I want to introduce you to your new classmate. Come in," Iruka told them, motioning to the door as it slid open. In walked a boy in a completely black outfit. He wore a black mask, a black jacket with a hood, black ANBU pants, and a pair of black boots. He had a couple holsters on his pants; one was the normal kunai/shuriken holster on his right leg, then there was a longer rectangular one next to it, and then there were two circular ones on both of his legs. On his back was a sword; the hilt and sheath were midnight black while the guard was pure white. He also had black metal plates on his jacket's shoulders, black metal bracers on his forearms, and black gloves. "So, why don't you introduce yourself? And can you take your hood off? Along with your mask so we can see you?" Iruka asked. With that, he took off his mask and hood, revealing golden eyes and mid-long hair that reached the bottom of the back of his neck before curling out. His piercing gaze made a few people shiver. Then he broke into a grin and his eyes seemed to hold a warm fire that made you feel happy.

"How would you like me to introduce myself sensei?" the boy asked Iruka.

"Tell us about yourself. Your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams, things like that," he responded.

"Very well. My name is Iguru Kyuu. I like to read, write, learn new techniques and jutsus, and I also like to help people to the best of my abilities. I dislike people who judge before getting to know someone, people who sabotage people's lives, and evil people; rapists, tyrants, people like that. My hobbies are pretty much the same as my likes, but another hobby of mine is training; physical, mental, and spiritual. I also like to write stories and such during my free time. My goal is to help as many people as I can and to protect those precious to me," he explained.

"Any questions for Kyuu-san?" Iruka asked his class. A few raised their hands, including nearly all of the clan heirs. Kyuu pointed to Ino first. "Yes, the beautiful young lady on the far right," Kyuu said, which made Ino blush at his compliment.

"Do you happen to belong to a clan?" she asked, most of the hands falling down afterward.

"Yes," he responded, a sad smile on his face.

"If you wouldn't mind, could you tell us a little about you're clan?" Iruka questioned.

"Not really much to tell, my clan's not around anymore. We were a clan of assassins but they were all killed when I was young," he said, gaining the attention of the Uchiha. "But hey, that's in the past, not like it really matters now."

"Thank you for sharing that with us Kyuu-san," Iruka said before Kyuu pointed over to Sakura.

"Do you have any kekkai genkai?" she asked.

"Yes, the kekkai genkai of the Iguru clan is the Washigan," Kyuu told them before pointing at the Nara who was now fully awake.

"Are you the last of the Iguru clan?" Shikamaru asked.

"Yes," Kyuu told them.

"How can you smile and be so happy? Nearly your whole clan was killed and yet you're standing there with that stupid grin on your face!" Sasuke yelled angrily.

"Sasuke!" Iruka yelled, only for Kyuu to signal that it was fine.

"Because I have to be," he simply stated with a sad smile.

"Any more questions?" Kyuu asked. With no more hands raised, he went up the stairs, making his way towards Naruto.

"Okay, so this year you will be finishing up your studies and improving all of your combat skills," Iruka informed them. "So, we'll spend most of the day out in the field. We'll work on your accuracy and taijutsu, then your ninjutsu, and then come in and do a quick lesson on ninjutsu theory and such." The class then filed out of the classroom and outside to the field.

"Now then, form a line in front of the targets. You'll take a small assessment test to see where you are now, we'll then see how much you've improved by the end of the year," Iruka told them. Then a silver haired man in the standard chunin attire walked over to Iruka. "Ah, Mizuki, you're late. Well, anyway, we have a new student, Iguru Kyuu," Iruka told him, pointing over to Kyuu. Mizuki simply nodded and stood there with Iruka.

"Okay, first up is…" Iruka started, before he was interrupted.

"Sensei, how about we have Kyuu-san go first? So we can see where he's at? You know, since he's new," Sakura asked. Iruka thought about it for a second before agreeing and motioning for Kyuu to go.

"Oh, and Kyuu, use whatever weapons you'd like," Iruka told him.

Kyuu simply stepped up and took out his own kunai from the holster on his right leg. They were pure white and had three small holes in the middle of the blade. He threw his kunai at the targets with perfect accuracy. Then he pulled out shuriken from his holster on his left leg, the shuriken, like the kunai were pure white, but they were very thin and had nine points instead of the normal four. Like the kunai, they hit dead center.

"Is that it Kyuu-kun?" Iruka asked when he got out of his stupor.

"Yes, that's it," Kyuu told them as he walked up to the targets to grab his weapons. As he got back to the group, he received a question.

"Uh, Kyuu-san, were all those custom made?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, I hate buying gear and stuff so I make most of my own things," he told her.

"Sugoi," was all Naruto had to say. Then everyone started to go, when they were all done, Kyuu tied in accuracy with Uchiha Sasuke, who also had perfect accuracy. Naruto had gotten most of them but couldn't hit some, though the ones he hit were far from the center. It was at this time Kyuu noticed the quality of Naruto's weapons. They sucked, to say the least. They were rusted and dull, they had dents, and a few didn't even have points.

"Naruto," Kyuu said, getting his attention.

"Yeah?" he responded.

"Once we're let out, can you come with me somewhere?" Kyuu asked him.

"Uhh, yeah, sure," Naruto told him, a bit weary.

"Okay, now that we are done with this, we shall now be testing your taijutsu skills. Mizuki will be your opponent. Try your best to either beat Mizuki or stay in the ring for five minutes," Iruka told them as they got done, walking over to the taijutsu ring. "We'll have Kyuu-san go first again, is that okay with you?"

"Yes, that's fine," Kyuu replied as he and Mizuki stepped into the ring. They stood at opposite ends before getting into fighting stances. Mizuki putting his right fist in front on his face and his left underneath it while getting lower to allow easier movement. Kyuu followed him and got into his own stance. He sunk down near the ground, his left leg in front and his right in back. His hands were in loose fists, his left near his head and his right bent back near his knee.

"Are you ready?" Mizuki asked, receiving a nod.

"Hajime!" Iruka yelled as Kyuu rushed towards Mizuki, jumping and throwing a right punch to his face only for Mizuki to grab it with his left and spin him in the air. Kyuu, using the momentum gained from the spin, twisted his body and kicked Mizuki in his back, knocking him through the air, directly under Kyuu and almost out of the ring. Mizuki then got up and stood his ground, waiting for Kyuu to come. Kyuu then charged at speeds that impressed them, easily going as fast as a Chunin, if not a Jounin. They then met each other with a fist to each other's face. Kyuu then flipped over Mizuki and kicked him in the back of the head while still flipping over him, making him fly out of the ring.

"Well that was harder than I thought it'd be," Kyuu said with a smile. Everyone looked at him in awe, bewildered that he was able to take out Mizuki so quickly and easily.

"Kyuu, that was awesome! How'd you do that?" Naruto asked.

"I train to be the best," he said simply with a smile.

"Tch, I can do that," Sasuke said arrogantly. He stepped into the ring as Mizuki got back up and walked into the ring, though it looked like he was hurting a bit. Both got into a fighting stance; ready to begin as soon as Iruka signaled them to.

"Hajime!" Iruka yelled before the two sped towards each other. Sasuke was going on the offensive and was pushing Mizuki into the corner. Then after a minute, Sasuke was able to kick Mizuki just out of the ring, winning against Mizuki, which boosted his ego even more.

"See! The new guy's not so great! Sasuke-kun beat Mizuki-sensei too!" one of Sasuke's fangirls yelled, gaining a chorus of agreeing voices from the other fangirls. Everyone else simply ignored them, just waiting to get called up to go fight. Once it was Naruto's turn, Kyuu noticed something different about Mizuki.

'Mizuki-sensei's stance changed a bit… along with expression… so he intends to actually fight against Naruto? No, that expression… I bet he's planning something for him, let's see…' Kyuu thought as he walked over from a tree he was leaning against. As he got closer to watch the match though, he tripped, gaining the attention of the other students and Iruka just as he began the match. Mizuki took that moment to immediately take Naruto down when he thought no one was watching, though a few saw it, including Kyuu.

'So I was right, he's just sabotaging Naruto. He doesn't seem like he's one to do it simply out of spite though, he's probably planning something for Naruto in the long-run. I'd better keep an eye on him,' Kyuu thought. The day then went by just like that as the class spent most of the day outside assessing their skills before going inside for a small assessment quiz.

"So Naruto, are you ready?" Kyuu asked as the day ended.

"Hai, where are we going?" the orange clad boy asked.

"Just follow me," he told him.

"Yosh," Naruto said, following the other boy out of the room, gaining the attention of a few of the students, along with the two teachers in the room.

'Naruto-baka is leaving with Kyuu-san?" Ino thought from her position next to the now-leaving Uchiha. Many others, including Iruka, Hinata, Shino, and Shikamaru, thought things along the same line as the pair walked out of the school.

Kyuu and Naruto were now making their way to their destination. To Naruto, it was obvious that they were making their way to the shinobi district, where most of the weapon and shinobi clothing stores were located in the large village.

"Kyuu-san, why are we going to the shinobi district?" Naruto asked.

"Well, for one, we gotta get you new weapons, all of yours are... horrible to say the least. Then we also gotta get you new clothes, that orange is seriously gonna get you killed one day," Kyuu explained.

"What! But orange is the best color ever!" he yelled.

"Your neon orange is the color people use to make sure people see something and tell them there's something to look out for, there's no way that it's gonna help you keep a low profile," Kyuu told him.

"Hey Kyuu, how am I supposed to buy the stuff? I don't have any money to get anything else," Naruto said.

"No worries Naruto, I'll pay for it all, it's no problem," Kyuu told him with a smile.

"Arigatou gozaimasu, Kyuu-san," Naruto said sincerely.

"You're welcome Naruto-kun. And drop the san, it makes me feel old," he responded.

"Haha, okay, Kyuu," the blonde said happily before they stopped outside of a shop; the Wolf Fang Shinobi Shop.

"This is the place, come on, let's go in," Kyuu said, opening the door for Naruto before following him in. The store itself was completely filled with weapons and clothes, the shop being divided into a clothes section and a weapon's section.

"Welcome to the Wolf Fang Weapons Shop! Can I help you with anything?" a female voice asked from the other end of an aisle of weapons. The voice belonged to a girl in a pink sleeveless shirt, blue pants, and a pair of blue shinobi shoes. She had chocolate brown eyes and matching hair that was put into two small buns on the top of her head that resembled panda ears.

"Oh, hey Tenten-chan, can you help us find some stuff for Naruto here?" Kyuu asked the girl.

"Oh, hey Kyuu-kun, yeah, no problem. What kinds of things do you need?" Tenten asked.

"We'll need some new shuriken, kunai, senbon, some new clothes, my order of chakra coins, and maybe a blade for Naruto, I think I'm gonna teach him the way of the sword," Kyuu said, gaining a look from Naruto.

"No problem, just follow me," the girl told them, the two following her down an aisle.

"You're gonna teach me how to use a sword?" Naruto asked Kyuu.

"Yup, and not just that, I'm gonna take you under my wing; I'll make you strong enough to take on a Jonin easily by the end of the year" he told him with confidence.

"Kyuu, I know that you're strong but… you can't seriously get me strong enough to take on a Jonin so quick can you?" he asked.

"Of course I can Naruto, just trust me," Kyuu said.

"Hai," Naruto responded, fully trusting his new friend.

"Well, here's the shuriken, kunai, and senbon; grab as many as you need," Tenten said once they were done talking, happy that her old underclassman gained not only a friend but also a sensei. Kyuu then proceeded to take out a bag and put in ten boxes of each.

"Okay, now let's go over to the swords," Tenten said, leading them over to an aisle against the store's far wall that had shelves of various blades ranging from katanas to zweihanders to rapiers.

"Any of them speak to you Naruto? A sword is an extension of yourself, so you have to make to pick one that," Kyuu started to say before he looked over to Naruto, seeing him staring straight at a black katana. The katana was mainly very plain; the whole sword being black, other than the hilt, which had white trim. On the pommel though was a single white word in kanji; courage.

"I think this is the one," he said, mesmerized by the simple sword, Tenten and Kyuu smiling that he found one so quickly.

"Good, now let's find you some clothes," Kyuu said, Tenten then leading them over to the male clothing section, which contained many differently styled and colored clothes. The three then went to work at trying to find clothes for Naruto.

"Hmm, what do you guys think about these?" they all said simultaneously as they each pulled out a different outfit. Each one was different from the next; Kyuu's being completely black and slightly resembled what Kyuu was wearing, Naruto's looking just like the clothes that he currently wore, and Tenten's were a navy blue and resembled what she wore. Each of them looked at each other's outfits before their eyes started to twitch.

"It looks just like what you're wearing!" they each yelled.

"Okay, how about a compromise?" Kyuu asked.

"Okay," the other two said after a few seconds.

"Okay, gimme a sec," Kyuu said before running around to the clothes racks. Once he was done, he came back and now held an outfit out in front of him. It consisted of a black sleeveless shirt, black ANBU pants, a pair of black boots with metal plating on it, a pair of black fingerless gloves, and a black hooded cloak that was ragged at the bottom. "How about this?"

"There's no orange," Naruto said.

"Yes there is," Kyuu said as he showed the inside of the cloak, the inside being the neon orange Naruto loved so much. "It's reversible so you can have orange if you want."

"Okay, I'm good with the outfit now," Naruto said.

"Good, now go change," he told his to-be-student.

"Yosh!" he yelled before taking the clothes and running into the changing rooms and changing into the new outfit. Once he came out, he saw that Tenten and Kyuu were talking on a bench, not yet noticing him. He went closer to ask what they thought about the outfit on him when he heard Tenten say something that intrigued him.

"So are you gonna tell him who you really are? You'll have to tell him sometime," she said.

"I know, but not yet, he doesn't need to know yet," Kyuu responded, the two then staying silent for a second before hearing Naruto behind them.

"What do you guys think about the outfit on me?" he asked, pulling the edge of the cloak up across his face in mock seriousness before bringing it down and smiling.

"It's looks nice, even better than I thought it would," Tenten said.

"That's an understatement. Naruto, I can guarantee that girls will be falling head-over-heels for you," Kyuu told him. "They're gonna be like; damn he's fine! I want some of that!" he yelled before going into a laughing fit.

"Kyuu-kun, your imitations suck," Tenten said, glaring at him playfully.

"Hai, hai," Kyuu said, agreeing with the girl.

"Then I'll take it! I like it anyways!" Naruto yelled.

"Okay," Kyuu said before going around and grabbing six more pairs. "Well, I think that's it."

"Okay, then let's go get this all rung up," Tenten said, going over to the counter and ringing up all of the things. "Okay, that'll be 372 Ryo," she said before Kyuu handed over a large stack of bills.

"Keep the change," Kyuu said before leaving, Naruto at his tail with the bag of weapons and clothes in his hands and his katana on his back.

"So Kyuu, are we gonna start training today?" Naruto asked.

"Nope, we'll start tomorrow, but I want to know if you'd like to come stay at my house from now on since you're my student now," he replied.

"What? But… you've already done all of this, I can't accept your offer. Plus, we've only just met!" Naruto yelled.

"Naruto, I'm doing this because I want to. Plus, none of the villagers know where I live. They can't come and harass you or anything because of your tenant if you come live with me," Kyuu said.

"H-how do you know about that?" he asked.

"Naruto, I know a lot of things about you. I've already planned a lot of things out for you. I talked to the Hokage this morning," Kyuu started to say, gaining more of the blonde's attention. "I told him about my intentions to train you and he agreed with my idea. He's actually the one that suggested you live with me."

"But how do you know about **it**?" he asked.

"Let's just say that you and I have something in common," Kyuu told him with a wolfish grin, his eagle-like eyes sparkling.


	2. Six Sensei's

"What do you mean we have something in common?" Naruto asked.

"Let's talk about this in private," Kyuu said, putting a hand on Naruto's shoulder before they disappeared in a flash of light, blinding everyone around them.

_

After Kyuu had put his hand on Naruto's shoulder, the orange-clad boy suddenly felt a pull before finding himself in a large yard, standing next to a mansion, in an enormous looking estate. As he looked around, he saw many things around the estate, ranging from training dummies, to large ponds, to large piles of scrap metal that he assumed used to be weapons.

"Yeah, we go through a lot of kunai and stuff," Kyuu said. "But hey, let's go inside, we'll go sit down and talk," he said before leading Naruto into the house and into a living room with a few sofas and tables. Once there, the two sat down and waited for a moment before Kyuu started to talk. "So first, you want to know about how I know about your tenant, correct?"

"Hai."

"First I have to ask though. How do you know about him?" Kyuu asked, Naruto instantly turning serious.

"Well... I guess you could say it all happened by dumb luck. Last year, I was trying to get my Bushin no Jutsu to work and when I was concentrating, I suddenly wound up in this sewer kind of place, which is where I met him. He was locked behind this gate thing and he told me who he was and what happened to me," Naruto explained.

"How'd you take it?" Kyuu asked.

"Oh, I took it pretty well actually," Naruto said, thinking about to how he went into a depression for a little while. "Yeah, not too bad."

"Well that's good. But I guess it's time for me to explain myself huh?" he asked, gaining a nod. "Well, I guess I should start from that night all those years ago. It was on a night like any other. But on this particular night, there was something that broke the silence, it was my screams. I had just been born and the scientists of my family were going through with their plan to create the best and most powerful assassin in the world. An ultimate weapon that they could use to take out whoever they wished to. They took the DNA of the two strongest things that they knew of and integrated it into my own."

"What were the two things?" he asked.

Only after a moment of thought did Kyuu respond, "Demons."

"What?"

"Demons. The DNA of a wolf and an eagle demon were taken and integrated into my DNA. They turned me into a hanyou" he explained. "You see, there are a lot more demons than just the Bijū like the Kyuubi. It's just that the Bijū are huge and more noticeable, but there are many smaller ones out there that are just as deadly."

"But... how did they do it?" he asked.

"They put the DNA right here," Kyuu said, turning around and pulling his hair up, showing a small symbol on the back of his neck. It resembled bird flying away with a semicircle over it with small tick marks on it that made it resemble a jaw.

"It's like how I have the seal on my stomach," Naruto said, looking down to his own seal.

"Exactly. And to answer your question, I found out about your tenant through a technique that I developed to find jinchuuriki," the hanyou explained.

"What's the technique you developed?" the jailer asked.

"It's a sonar kind of technique. I basically charge up some chakra in my body and then let it all go at once. I then read the changes in my chakra as it flows away and I'm able to tell where everything is along with where chakra signatures are. Jinchuuriki have a distinct chakra signature because of the Bijū in them and I'm able to detect that. That's how I could tell you were a Jinchuuriki, then I just had to remember what Bijū attacked Konoha," Kyuu explained.

"Cool, you think you can teach me how to do it?" Naruto asked.

"Sure. But first, let's eat and then go to sleep. We start training tomorrow morning," Kyuu ordered, standing up and going to the kitchen.

"Do you have any ramen?" Naruto asked.

"Do I have any ramen? Who do you think you're talking to?" Kyuu said, opening up a cabinet, showing ramen of every kind that Naruto could ever imagine.

"Gasp! So much ramen!" he yelled, jumping for the cabinet that was like a shrine to him, only for Kyuu to step on his cloak, making him fall.

"We're not eating ramen tonight. I'm gonna get started on dinner, go outside and train with your new stuff," Kyuu said to the Jinchuuriki.

"Aww, why not?" he asked.

"Because eating ramen all the time is unhealthy, and I know you always eat it. Now go," he responded. "And tell me if anyone comes."

"Why would anyone come?" Naruto asked.

"Mu friends live here with me," Kyuu said, opening his refrigerator and taking out chicken breast, cilantro, and various sauces, along with fish and many other vegetables.

"Who're your friends?"

"There's a picture of us," Kyuu told him, pointing to a picture dame behind Naruto. In the picture were 6 people, one of them being Kyuu. In the picture, three people were standing in the back and three were crouching in front of them. "That's us from a year ago when we first moved here. The guy in the back with the red vest is Gendo Kuroki." Naruto looked at the picture, finding the boy Kyuu was indicating. He wore a red bandana that covered his hair and forehead, an open red vest that showed off his muscles, a pair of back pants that reached his mid-shin, black shinobi shoes, and a pair of black fingerless gloves that were connected to black bracers on his forearms. He had blood red eyes and stood about the same height as Kyuu. He also had a sword on his back, but it was strapped horizontally at his waist.

"He looks pretty strong," Naruto said.

"You have no idea... Well, the girl between me and him is Aiso Kochou." The girl stood a small amount shorter then the two boys next to her and had long light periwinkle hair and darker purple eyes. She was wearing a white and purple hooded jacket with a mesh shirt underneath, tight white pants with dark red lace on the sides, purple boots also with dark red lace on the sides, and a purple hat with white snow flakes on it.

"She's pretty," Naruto commented.

"Yeah, but anyways, the one crouching in front of me is Zande Ryuku." He had white hair and blood red eyes. He wore a red kimono shirt, black gauntlets with metal plating that was connected to a black glove that had a metal plate on the , black pants that reached just below the knee, red metal shin guards, and black shoes. On his back were four swords, each was at an angle, two were angled down, while two were angled up.

Why's he have so many swords?" Naruto asked.

"He developed a yontoryu to nitoryu style of kenjutsu to utilize all of them. Well, the guy crouching in the middle is Kageyama Yuusuke," said Kyuu. Yuusuke wore a crimson colored long sleeve shirt under a black vest, a pair of black gauntlets with red flames on them, a pair of black pants, and a pair of black shoes. He had midnight black hair and had onyx black eyes.

"And the girl between them is... heh, speak of the devil," he said.

"Anyone home?" they heard from the other room. The owner of the voice was none other than the girl in the photo. "Oh, hey Kyuu."

"Naruto-kun, this is Mitsukai Ai," he introduced.

"Nice to meet you Mitsukai-san," Naruto greeted.

"Oh please, call me Ai, Naruto-kun," she told him.

"H-hai," he responded.

"Yeah, when you meet the others, just call them by their first names, and don't be so formal, it always makes us feel old. Now, go and train while I make dinner. Ai, can you help me with it?" Kyuu asked.

"Yup, no problem," she responded, walking over to a pantry and putting on an apron.

"Well then, I guess I'll go outside," Naruto said, leaving the two and going back the way he came, soon finding himself outside again, standing in front of one of the many training dummies. "Yosh, I'll start with my sword." He then drew his sword and started to swing it in ways he had seen some shinobi use their own. He practiced this until he felt comfortable with it, starting to string together some of the attacks. He practiced for about an hour before he heard something from behind him, it was the sound of clapping.

"Nice job, has Kyuu just started to teach you kenjutsu?" someone asked. When Naruto turned around, he saw four people standing there; three boys and a girl.

"Oh, hi. I'm Naruto, and you guys are... Kuroki... Kochou... Yuusuke... and Ryuku, right?" he asked, wiping away the sweat that had built up on his forehead.

"Hai. And you still haven't answered my question," Kuroki asked.

"Oh, right. Umm, no, Kyuu hasn't taught me yet. He said that we'd start tomorrow morning," Naruto explained.

"What? But you were just using... never mind. Where'd you learn that stuff?" Ryuku asked.

"Oh, umm, it's just some stuff I remember seeing these two ANBU guys using once," he explained.

"You must have a pretty good memory then," Yuusuke said.

"Yeah, whenever I see something then I never forget it."

"So you have an eidetic memory?" Ryuku asked.

"A what?" Naruto asked.

"An eidetic memory. It's an ability that some people have. It allows you to remember things because of sensory information, whether it be visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, or olfactory. You're able to remember it all in incredible detail," Ryuku explained matter-or-factly. He then looked at the others to see looks of confusion planted on all of their faces.

"Whaaaaa?" they all asked in unison.

"Oh, sorry. Umm... you're able so remember things that you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell in a lot of detail," he explained in simpler terms.

"Ohhhhhh," they all said.

"Hey guys! Come in, Ai and I just got done making dinner," Kyuu called from one of the windows of the kitchen.

"Food!" Yuusuke, Kuroki, and Ryuku all yelled, running for the door, each trying to get into the house first.

"Hahaha, are they always like that?" Naruto asked Kochou.

"Yup, always will and always have been," she confirmed.

"Heh, I think I'm gonna like it here," he said, Kochou and him then making their way inside, right behind the three food-crazed boys. Once they made it into the dining room, Naruto noticed something, there were a lot more Kyuu's and Ai's than there were before. "What the... did I practice too long or something? Cause I'm counting ten Kyuu's and ten Ai's setting the table..."

"Haha, no. We're Kage Bunshin," one of the many Kyuu's said.

"But... Bunshin can't interact with real objects," Naruto said.

"Well, normal Bunshin can't, but we're Kage Bunshin, we're solid clones," one of the Ai's explained.

"Whoa," Naruto said, sitting down in one of the many seats.

"And guess what Naruto," Kyuu said.

"What?" he asked.

"This is one of the things I'm gonna teach you," Kyuu told him.

"But... I'm really bad at Bunshin no Jutsu," Naruto said. "I'm probably gonna be even worse at the Kage Bunshin."

"That's not really true," Kochou said.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, to put it simply, you have massive chakra reserves. That's why you have a hard time with the Bunshin no Jutsu. That's because with larger chakra reserves, the harder it is to control it. You have to have really good chakra control to be able to pull off a normal Bunshin with your reserves. With the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu technique though, you need larger reserves because it divides your chakra between the Kage Bunshin and yourself evenly. So basically, the more chakra you have, the more you can create and not worry about dying from chakra exhaustion or something," she explained to the boy as he sat there, simply nodding his head in understanding as the Kage Bunshin around him set everything up and the group of seven started to eat.

"Oh, so it's a good thing I have large reserves?" Naruto asked.

"Exactly, plus, Kage Bunshin are a lot more useful than Bunshin since you're able to train using them," Kochou told him.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"Well, when a Kage Bunshin is dispersed then all of the memories that it had are transferred back to you," she explained to the boy.

"Oh, so if I like, read a scroll using a Kage Bunshin then I'd know what was in it once it dispels," Naruto said.

"Precisely," Kochou confirmed.

"Cool," was all Naruto said.

"Oi, Kyuu," Kuroki said to the black-clad boy, gaining his attention.

"What?" he asked.

"Well, if I remember right, Naruto said that you'll start training him in the morning, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, so?" Kyuu asked.

"Well, aren't you really slow in the morning? You're kinda still half-asleep for a couple hours after you wake up..."

"Oh, right. Crap... Naruto, is it alright with you if we just start training in the afternoon instead?" he asked.

"That's okay with me," Naruto responded.

"Instead of that, why don't you just have me teach him taijutsu and stuff in the morning? Then in the afternoon then you can teach him stealth and stuff," Kuroki said.

"Oh, that works. Plus, your taijutsu's better than mine," Kyuu said.

"Hey, wait... how come only you two get to be Naruto-kun's sensei's? I wanna be someone's sensei!" Ryuku complained.

"Yeah, me too!" the others agreed.

"How about we all be his sensei's? Kuroki does physical training and taijutsu, Kyuu does stealth and assassination, Ryuku takes over tactics, Yuusuke teaches weapons, Kochou teaches jutsus, and I teach him ninja theory and seals," Ai suggested.

"Cool, I'm okay with that," Kyuu said, the others also agreeing in various ways.

"Looks like you'll have six sensei's now Naruto-kun," Ai said to him with a smile.

"But how're we gonna teach him? There's not enough time for all of us to go in one day," Ryuku said.

"Oh, I got this," Yuusuke said, pulling out a notebook from seemingly nowhere. "Okay, so. Since there's six of us and Kyuu can't really operate in the morning, then we'll have two people teach him each day. Kuroki and Kyuu will teach on Mondays and Thursdays, Kuroki in the morning and Kyuu in the afternoon. Ryuku and Ai will teach on Tuesdays and Fridays, Ryuku in the morning and Ai in the afternoon. Then on Wednesdays and Saturdays, Kochou and I'll teach; I'll go in the morning and Kochou will go in the afternoon. And since we all have our own kenjutsu styles, we'll teach him them on Sundays, each of us will have two hours. We'll take advantage of his eidetic memory and teach him all we can."

"Why do I get a feeling that this year is gonna be like hell for me?" Naruto asked as he watched the six others create an extremely rigorous schedule for his training.

"Oh, no. You're misunderstanding this Naruto-kun. This isn't going to be like hell,"Ai said with a cheery smile to Naruto, making him sigh, happy that it wouldn't be like hell.

"Nope, this isn't going to be like hell. It's gonna be far worse than that," Kyuu said, a creepy grin starting to grow on the faces of his new sensei's.

"Ahhhhhh!" Naruto screamed, loud enough for the whole village to hear.


End file.
